Inadvertent Allies
by Momentarily Infinite
Summary: Rose rolled her eyes. She'd heard all about the Malfoys.


This was never meant to be a friendship one-shot. It's funny how these things just write themselves sometimes.  
I'm open to the possibility of a Part Two.

**Inadvertent Allies**

**  
**Rose looked round at the faces of her classmates, all varying degrees of terrified. She frowned. It was just Sorting, right? They put on a hat, and a House was chosen for them. What was so scary about that?

_You were scared just hours ago, _her conscience told her. She shushed it, preferring to ignore the sensible voice, even when it was right.

Rose was now very calm about the situation. Her parents had both been sorted into Gryffindor, as had her entire family so far. Of course, having such a huge shadow to stand in was daunting and even infuriating at times, but at least she knew the odds were on her side.

As the group of unsorted first years gradually dwindled, she began to tire with watching the same thing over and over: a frightened boy or girl sitting down, listening to the hat, and then looking relieved as they were sorted into their House.

"Malfoy, Scorpius," she heard Professor McGonagall announce. Rose felt her eyes roll involuntarily. She'd heard all about the Malfoy family.

She looked up at the pale, blonde boy who looked just as calm as she felt. She knew exactly why he was so relaxed; it was no secret that every Malfoy was sorted into-

"Slytherin!" the hat yelled, and the table closest to the entrance erupted into cheers. _Exactly, _she thought.

Soon after, her favourite cousin, Albus Potter, was called to the front. She gave him a reassuring smile, and watched as he stumbled his way up to the stool, then sat with a great look of concentration. When "Gryffindor!" was shouted, her smile turned into a full-blown grin. The Gryffindor table applauded and stood up to welcome the famous Harry Potter's second son to their table.

It seemed like hours before Rose's name was finally called. She made her way to the stool and smiled as she sat down. She looked at each of the tables, and everyone stared back. She was the final first year, and they were all clearly desperate for Sorting to finish.

_Ah! _A voice exclaimed the moment the hat touched her fiery hair. _Another Weasley!_

Rose sighed inwardly. It was always the same. Yet another of the Weasley clan! What she would give just to occasionally be nobody but _Rose. _She wasn't just a statistic, one in a list of many. She was a separate person, and as such she was desperate to prove herself at Hogwarts. They'd see her for _her _talents, not her famous parents or her numerous cousins.

_So you want to be different, eh? Want to prove yourself? Aspiration is a fine quality indeed, _the hat told her. _One that would certainly not be out of place in-_

"Slytherin!"

Rose was dumbfounded. Had she heard correctly? Surely the hat hadn't placed her in _Slytherin_! That wasn't what she meant at all! She tried to backtrack, but it was too late. The Sorting hat was pulled from her head, and she reluctantly opened her eyes.

She wasn't sure if she was imagining the absolute silence in the room, or if she was just too shocked to distinguish any applause from the buzzing in her ears.

"A _Weasley _in Slytherin?" someone whispered as she walked past the Ravenclaw table to join her House. She'd purposefully avoided looking at the Gryffindors, especially her cousins.

_Well, you got what you wanted, _her conscience mocked. _You're certainly not just another statistic now._

Rose sat down at Slytherin table, and within seconds the plates had filled with enough food to feed an army. She looked around nervously, and to her surprise her peers smiled reassuringly back at her. The knot in her stomach lessened a tiny bit more with each smile, though she wasn't sure it would ever go away completely.

Directly across the table from her, Scorpius Malfoy was staring at her, a long hard look that was neither a glare nor a smile. She forced herself to look away.

"What did the Sorting hat say to you?" a girl asked Rose after a few minutes. "I've never heard of a Weasley who was sorted into anything other than Gryffindor."

Rose turned to look at her. She had sleek, dark brown hair and blue eyes with a certain glint in them. She certainly looked like the gossiping type.

"Well, it didn't really say anything. I kind of told it that I wasn't just another Weasley, and it took that to mean I wanted to be in Slytherin." She shrugged as if this wasn't a problem, though she was terrified at the thought of having to tell her parents she was in the same House as a _Malfoy._

"Oh, that's cool," the girl replied. "The hat probably decided it wasn't promoting, uhm, what do they call it? Inter-house co-operation. Besides, eventually _someone _had to break the All Gryffindor rule."

That was true, Rose conceded. Someone had to prove that not all of her family were exact clones of each other. The knot loosened some more as she mulled that thought over until the end of the Feast. There was no shadow in Slytherin, either, she thought. Rose could be truly awful, and she'd still be the best Weasley in Slytherin.

She chuckled inwardly. She'd never had that kind of freedom.

Feeling a whole lot better, Rose moved to stand up when suddenly a pale hand thrust itself into her personal space. She followed the length of the arm up to where it met the body of Scorpius Malfoy, who was smirking lazily at her.

"Congratulations," he drawled.

"On?" Rose enquired tentatively.

"Showing that at least one person in your family is worthy to be in this House," Scorpius replied matter-of-factly.

Outraged at the insult against her family, Rose whirled around and stalked away in the direction of the Slytherin prefects, leaving the boy's hand unshaken.

-

"I can't _believe _you ended up in Slytherin!" Albus yelled, though Rose was right next to him. It was the first weekend of the school year, and Rose's family were scattered around by the lake, all within hearing distance of each other.

"We've been through this, Albus," Rose sighed. "Can you please drop it?"

"No!" he retorted. "No, I won't! You broke the tradition!"

Rose felt her temper rise as her cousin continued to yell indignantly.

"It's not like I _chose _to be in Slytherin, is it?" she replied. "I didn't tell the hat that I wanted to be there!"

"Dad said they take your choice into consideration. Why didn't you ask it to put you with us then?"

"Because I'm sick of being just A Weasley!" Rose yelled, matching Albus' volume. "I don't want to be exactly the same as everyone else!"

Albus was silent for a few seconds, before he whispered "Yeah, well you got your wish then. You're not the same at all. You're not even the same as the old you."

"What?" she asked, confused.

"Ditching your family for people like the _Malfoys_," Albus spat. "I don't even know who you are."

"Why does everything go back down to Scorpius?!" Rose asked. "This has got nothing to do with him!"

"And I have got nothing to do with you," Albus replied scathingly, glaring daggers at his cousin.

For the second time that week, Rose stormed off in an appalled rage, this time fighting the tears. None of her family had backed her up, she thought bitterly. She broke into a run, and was far too angry and upset to notice the blonde boy sat under a tree nearby, completely alone, as usual.

-

On her way to Charms, Rose was stopped by a cry of "Oi, Malfoy!" She, along with everybody else in the corridor, turned to see a burley fifth-year Gryffindor towering over Scorpius with a cruel look in his eyes.

"What?" Scorpius answered tentatively, trying to move past him.

"I'm surprised you can even dare to show your face here, Malfoy, after what your family did. If my family was as evil as yours, I wouldn't even be able to live with myself. Why don't you run back to your mansion and let the rest of us carry on _without you._" The Gryffindor spat at Scorpius' feet and shoved past him, and everybody continued moving to their classes as though nothing had happened.

Rose looked back at Scorpius. The expression of hurt and depression on his face made her heart hurt, but she didn't say anything. She'd learned her lesson.

"_That's for what your grandfather did to my uncle!" An unknown voice yelled. There was the sound of bone on bone, an eruption of cheers, and then the crowd dissipated, leaving a few mocking onlookers and a crumpled boy on the floor. Rose gasped at the sight of Scorpius Malfoy struggling to get up, one hand covering his heavily bleeding nose._

_She rushed forward as one of the remaining students went to kick him back down, and pushed hard. The boy stumbled and caught himself. He scoffed, and the rest of them left._

It isn't fair, _Rose thought sadly. _They're not even giving him a chance to prove that he's different.

Neither did you, _her conscience reminded her. _You heard about his family and you judged him too.

_Rose hated to agree, but it was true. Just like the way people assumed she would be brilliant because of her mother, they assumed Scorpius would be evil like his family. Guilt twisted her insides._

"_Are you alright?" she asked him, digging in her pockets and offering one half of her Uncle George's Nosebleed Nougats. "That'll stop the bleeding," she explained._

_Scorpius didn't take the nougat. He stared at Rose, that same level look that he'd used back in the Great Hall on their first day._

"_I don't need a girl to stick up for me. And especially not _you._" He walked away, leaving her offered sweet ignored._

Rose wasn't one to hold a grudge, but she also wasn't one to make the same mistake twice. Scorpius stared at her, daring her to say something, but instead she silently walked towards the Charms classroom, feeling piercing silver eyes on her back the entire way.

She sat down at her desk, and took out her textbook and her wand, placing them neatly on her desk. Typically, the Slytherins were sat at one side of the room, and the Gryffindors were sat at the opposite side, facing them.

Albus caught Rose's eye, and grinned. She smiled back, glad that they had made up soon after their fight. She had no idea what she would do without the support of her favourite cousin when she was especially down. She'd definitely needed him when her parents had replied to her first letter, and the feelings of her father were transparent all over the parchment. His first child had been placed in Slytherin, and he was bitterly disappointed. He never said it, but she could tell. Albus had been the only one able to cheer her up that day.

"Okay, let's see how you handled the homework, which was to practice the Tickling Charm," Professor Flitwick wheezed, stepping down from his desk. Rose wondered vaguely how old he was. He looked to be about a hundred.

There were several groans. Many students prayed each lesson that Flitwick was simply too old to remember the homework he had set, though so far he hadn't forgotten once.

"Let's see, who shall demonstrate first? How about you, Miss Finnegan?" he asked, gesturing towards Siobhan, a giggly but clever Gryffindor. Siobhan turned to her partner, and muttered "Rictusempra," flicking her wand as she did. Her partner burst into a fit of laughter, which quickly subsided.

"Well done!" Professor Flitwick exclaimed. "And now somebody from the other side. Hmm, how about you, Miss Weasley?"

Rose sighed. She hadn't practiced at all.

She turned to Alexandra, the sleek-haired girl she had talked to on the first day. Taking a deep breath, she flicked her wand and said the incantation, hoping for the best. Alexandra laughed, and then stopped, an apologetic look on her face. Rose cringed back.

It had barely been a chuckle.

"It seems someone hasn't been practising," Flitwick scolded. "A real shame. Your mother was particularly gifted at charms, as I recall. She got this particular spell down on her first try."

"She's not her mother though, is she?" Rose heard, and the room went silent.

"What was that, Mr Malfoy?" Flitwick asked.

"I said she's not her mother," Scorpius replied. Rose turned to face him, a frown on her face. "None of us are," he said, not looking at Rose. "Our parents, I mean. We don't necessarily look like them, nor have the same talents they do."

Rose smiled. He was sticking up for her, as she had done for him, she realised. He was letting everybody know that it wasn't okay to judge people based on their parents, in a way she had never had the courage to do.

_No wonder you aren't in Gryffindor. If anyone should be, it's Scorpius._

"We don't always get sorted into the same houses that they did," he continued. Everyone was staring, but he didn't seem to care.

"And we don't have to hold the same grudges that they had," she finished for him. Scorpius looked at her, startled. He clearly wasn't expecting her to say anything.

"I- Of course, you're right, Mr Malfoy," Flitwick conceded. "I apologise Miss Weasley. Though in future, I would prefer it if you _did _practice."

She nodded, and Professor Flitwick continued with the class. Rose, however, turned to face Scorpius, and mouthed 'Thank you' to him. He grinned back. It was a full smile, not the mocking smirk that was usually sent her way. 'Thank you too,' he mouthed back.

As Rose turned to face the professor, she realised that she had accidently made a friend out of Scorpius Malfoy.

Her dad was going to go ballistic.


End file.
